Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

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StephenGoranson
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Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by StephenGoranson »

Speaking of forgery and (SBL meeting in) San Antonio, a reminder of a proposed--not proven, as far as I know!--hint of a forgery source, here’s a link to discussion of the faked Demotic version of parts of the Gospel of Thomas supposedly reprinted from an 1875 New Orleans publication and offered to Discussions in Egyptology in 1990:
evangelicaltextualcriticism.blogspot.com/search?q=batson
Robin Lane Fox, in his second Financial Times article (linked at the above) promptly acknowledged the hoax and hinted at a potential source:
“There is, however, a clue: the editress who received his first letter happens to have kept the envelope. Its stamp is post-marked San Antonio, Texas, on November 16 1990. Batson’s letters have never mentioned a Texan connection. San Antonio happens to be the home town of the journal by which the next article by Batson is supposed to have been accepted: is it a coincidence or somehow a clue to the fake’s academic home? A rivalry, perhaps, between scholars or editors or their periodicals, with Oxford receiving a Texan time-bomb?”
This (as far as I know unproven) hint apparently suggests the hoaxer was someone associated with Varia Aegyptiaca, edited and published in San Antonio by Charles Cornell van Siclen III.
Is this true or false?
And, does anyone have a copy of the twelve page offprint of “Three unrecognized Demotic texts,” Batson D Sealing; R S Walker, as listed in WorldCat (formerly listed by the Brooklyn Museum)?
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DCHindley
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by DCHindley »

Hi stephen,

I take it you never did get the offprint?

Seems finding a copy of the journal number should have been possible.

A recent post suggests that you are not so sure of its legitimacy.

DCH

Edit: I suppose I should add that the fictitious name is probably derived from a cartoon figure, Batson D. Belfry, that made appearance in the syndicated *Shoe* newspaper comic strip. It probably only ran in US newspapers. The character is a spoof of US Senator Tip O'Neill and/or Ted Kennedy.

http://www.shoecomics.com/about_senator_belfry.php
Last edited by DCHindley on Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:13 am, edited 2 times in total.
Secret Alias
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by Secret Alias »

I did some research into this with a friend who lives in New Orleans. I researched the newspaper in question. I could dig up what I came up with.

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DCHindley
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by DCHindley »

Secret Alias wrote: Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:12 am I did some research into this with a friend who lives in New Orleans. I researched the newspaper in question. I could dig up what I came up with.
That would be great. See my additional comment above re the comic strip character Batson D. Belfry. You may remember them, as Shoe could have been run in a couple Canadian papers, and you may have seen them since you had moved to Seattle.

DCH
Secret Alias
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by Secret Alias »

I asked Lawrence Powell the following questions:
However I have a great number of questions that I hope you could answer. Most pressing of all:

1. who is Dr R W Walker? I see J R Walker was a prominent member of the Academy. J R Walker was also the secretary involved with another 'sister organization' the Polytechnic and Industrial Institute of Louisiana that seems to have gone defunct rather quickly. I am wondering whether R W Walker was a know figure in the 1870s or whether the ascription of the letter to 'Dr R W Walker' may simply denote that J R Walker was writing this in the capacity of 'R(ecording) S(ecretary). Any thoughts?

2. He is the drawing of the fragment as seen in the article:

Have you ever come across this in any of your research? Is it still in Louisiana?

3. What happened to the New Orleans Academy of Sciences? Are there are living people who can tell me where there 'stuff' disappeared to?

4. If you could give me any other places where I could search for the original copy of this article I would really appreciate it. For instance, might a record still be stored at the Picayune building (the 'Picayune Steam Company' I believe is listed as the publisher?

Thank you for your assistance. I really appreciate it.
He responded:
I wish I could help you out. The person who could have, Karlem Reiss, a physics professor emeritus at Tulane, died a few years back. I think you have gone to the right source: Tulane's Special Collection. But you might want to contact Irene Wainwright at the Louisiana Collection in the main branch of the New Orleans Public Library, Greg Lambousy at the Louisiana State Musem, or Alfred Lemmon at the Historic New Orleans Collection.

All best,

Larry Powell

Lawrence N. Powell
Professor Emeritus
Department of History
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118
davidmartin
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by davidmartin »

interesting is definitely a hoax?
Thomas in demotic wouldn't be completely unexpected as Coptic didn't start appearing until the 2nd century and demotic didn't disappear straight away
Paul the Uncertain
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by Paul the Uncertain »

A curiosity. The phantom 1874 author is given as "Dr. R.S. Walker." He appears unrelated to the pre-civil war corresponding member Elijah Millington Walker, M.D. (1824-1868; listed as "E.M. Walker" of Yorktown, Texas).

However, there is another Texas connection: the mailing place of the Sealing submission. There was a patent medicine made and sold in Texas ca. 1910 ("Single Stroke Antiseptic") by the Walker Chemical Company, whose president and developer of the medicinal formula was one R.S. Walker.

Our quarry? I don't know. R.S. Walker could be any one of a lot of people, or nobody at all. I don't have a parse of the initials, and the only biographical information I have about the patent medicine hawker R.S. Walker is from the court rulings in the Cherry v. First Texas Chemical Manufacturing Company litigation in the Texas courts.

The curiosity is the coincidence that the seal of the New Orleans Academy of Sciences shows an ouroboros (a serpent biting its tail) encircling a globe and a ring of stars. The trademark of Walker's patent medicine depicts St George descending from the sky to kill a dragon who straddles a globe.

Maybe no more than a coincidence. Worth mentioning, though.

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StephenGoranson
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by StephenGoranson »

As far as I know the article (WorldCat info below; Brooklyn Museum used to have it; now no longer listed) was a *pre-print,” set in type and apparently given to a few Egyptologists. But when it was revealed as a hoax, the journal editor replaced it with another article (by her), so the journal issue does not include it. The link in the OP gives more info.
Both that editor and my suspect mentioned in the OP are now deceased.

I’m not sure the R. S. Walker name will add much. At least I don’t see a hidden message in it. But if I missed something important, let me know.
R.S. Walker, elsewhere identified as a resident of Louisiana, also does appear, e.g., in the following. But I don’t see an Egyptology connection there.
Extract from letter of R. S. Walker: “The set of costumes which I ship you to-day for your Congress of Nations is the richest I have ever turned out, and are superior in finish to any entire set ever made in the United States”
New Orleans newspapers, May 28-31, 1875. E.g. New-Orleans Times, May 31, page 4 column 2. {News or ad?]

from WorldCat:
Three unrecognized Demotic texts /
Batson D Sealing; R S Walker
1990
English Article 12 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
[Oxford] : [Discussions in Egyptology],
Sealing, Batson D.
Walker, R. S. ; Fragmentary inscriptions in an unknown script from a private collection.
Three unrecognized Demotic texts /
Author(s): Sealing, Batson D.
Walker, R. S. ; Fragmentary inscriptions in an unknown script from a private collection.
Publication: [Oxford] : [Discussions in Egyptology],
Year: 1990
Description: 12 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
In: Forthcoming in Discussions in Egyptology. v. 19 (1991)
Paul the Uncertain
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Re: Demotic Gospel of Thomas hoax

Post by Paul the Uncertain »

Extract from letter of R. S. Walker:
Did you find anything that connects your R.S. Walker to the New Orleans Academy of Sciences?

Like you, I don't think "the Walker question" is critical to reolve. The name is common enough, even down to the "initials only" formatting.

Nevertheless, the "Letter to Theodore" controversy sets a low bar for mentions of coincidence (e.g. that the name of the the discoverer coincides with the name of a merchandiser of salt, a commodity mentioned both in the letter and its subject, the Gospel of Mark). So I did mention it.

The suspect material in the topic caper was reportedly mailed from Texas, a jurisdiction where a still-relevant commercial lawsuit features a "medicine" inventor named R.S. Walker, whose company's trademark bore a humorous relationship to the "trademark" of the academy being spoofed. Small world.

If this has any relevance, then perhaps it is the same relevance as the twin "Mortons" of To Theodore. Forgers (supposedly) endure tension between wanting both to be believed but also to be personally admired for their cleverness. Maybe "Sealing" has personal friends who'd "get" the joke, without its inclusion proving anything, not even to others who notice the potential jest.
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